Course Goals and Competencies

Course Goals and Competencies

 The Department of Literature and Language has developed the following list of goals and competencies for our classes:

• Literature 241 - Introduction to Poetry
• Literature 321/322/323 (surveys) - Beginnings of Western Literature, Renaissance to Enlightenment, Romantic to Modern
• Literature 324 - American Literary Tradition
• Literature 354/356 (genres) - Masterpieces of Drama, Art of the Novel
• Literature 483/485/487/489 - Major Author Seminar
• Literature 491 - Senior Seminar
• Senior Comprehensives

Literature 241 Introduction to Poetry      

At the completion of LIT 241, students should be able to do a competent close reading of a poem. Following is a partial list of skills students should possess:

1. They should understand and recognize the difference between paraphrase, summary, and close reading.
2. They should be able to identify and discuss the use of different kinds of diction in poetry.
3. They should be able to discuss denotative and connotative meanings of words used in poems.
4. They should be able to read a poem line by line and also to construct a written argument about a poem that is not bound to the order of lines.
5. They should be able to distinguish metered poems from free verse, to scan metered verse, and to identify the common meters.
6. They should be able to discuss how form and rhythm enact the argument of a poem.
7. They should be able to distinguish basic modes of poetry (narrative, dramatic, lyric), recognize some conventional genres (pastoral, Petrarchan love poem, traditional ballad, etc.), and recognize important fixed forms (sonnet, villanelle, etc.).
8. They should be able to identify and discuss a poem's imagery, identifying related images throughout a poem and tracking the progress of a poem's argument by following its imagery.
9. They should be able to recognize and discuss metaphorical language.
10. They should be able to identify tone in a poem and to follow variations in tone over the course of a poem.
11. They should be able to identify the attitude-the attitude of a poem's speaker as well as the attitude of the poet toward the poem's speaker.
12. Students should be expected to know how to use appropriate terminology in discussing poetry.
13. Students should also be able to think about a poem in various contexts: biographical, historical, cultural, literary-historical, etc. At least one writing assignment for the course should require a semi-formal scholarly approach as opposed to a personal-response, impressionistic, or judgmental approach.
14. Students should be able to cite passages of poems properly in their papers.
15. Students should be encouraged to attend poetry readings on campus and in town.
16. The skills students acquire in LIT 241 need to be reinforced in subsequent classes (surveys, etc.). If they are expected to practice close reading of poetry in other classes, they might not panic.

Literature 321, 322, 323 (surveys)

 At the completion of the 300 level survey courses, students should demonstrate the ability to perform the following: 

1. Conduct scholarly research using all the resources available through our library
2. Follow MLA guidelines for writing and documentation
3. Critique and integrate secondary sources alongside a study of primary sources
4. Understand critical approaches to literature and engage those voices in their own work
5. Dialogue with and constructively challenge their classmates' arguments, in written and oral formats
6. Articulate their ideas clearly in presentation and class discussion, using concrete evidence and explication of the text as support.

Lit 321 should emphasize the following goals:

1. Students should demonstrate proficiency in the ability to perform these research skills:
2. Search bibliographical resources
3. Employ MLA format
4. Critique sources
5. Students should successfully present materials orally

Literature 323 Romantic to Modern

Students should demonstrate proficiency in the ability to perform the following:

1. Apply varieties of critical approaches
2. Think in personal terms about the use of critical approaches and the choice of subject matter
3. Interrogate formation and contents of the canon.

Literature 324 American Literary Tradition

In addition to the competencies expected of students upon completion of Lit 241, 321, 322, and 323, each student having completed Lit 324, The American Literary Tradition, should be critically versed in the following:

1. Significant, representative works in American Literature from its origins in Native American Literature and early Colonial Literature though Post World War II literature, including the latter decades of the twentieth century.
2. Multicultural literature, as relevant, for each period of American Literature being studied.
3. Works of literary criticism in historical contexts, e.g., the "Manifesto" by Walt Whitman, "The Art of Criticism" by Henry James, "Imagism" by Ezra Pound.
4. At least one complete 20th Century play by a significant American playwright, e.g., O'Neil, Williams, or Miller.
5. Canon formation in American Literature, with a particular focus on earlier omissions from the canon and challenges and additions to it in recent decades.
6. Significant literary movements in the history of American Literature, e.g., Transcendentalism, Realism, and Modernism.

Literature 354/356 (genres)

The purpose of the "genre" classes is to encourage and permit students to study one kind of literary work extending over a long period of time and several different cultural traditions. Thus students can consider what the genre means, and how it differs from other types of literature, by reading many examples; learn a vocabulary and a historico-critical stance that will permit them to criticize other examples of the genre; and come to some understanding of the historical and cultural developments that have produced changes in the genre over time.

The catalog explanations of these classes are as follows:

Literature 354 Masterpieces of Drama:

An intensive survey of major dramatic works focusing on historical development from Greek drama to the present, on various types of drama, and on an analysis of the distinctive elements of dramatic literature as an art form.

Literature 356 Art of the Novel:

An intensive study of the novel and its historical dimensions with emphasis on meaning and technique.

Course goals

At the conclusion of the genre course(s) students should demonstrate the following abilities:

1. Understand critical approaches to literature and use various critical approaches intelligently in their own work.
2. Write, speak, and think subtly about the historical changes which have produced change in the genre of fiction or drama.
3. Present a critical argument, either in a formal presentation or in the context of class discussIon, and give good reasons for its acceptance.
4. Conduct scholarly research using the resources available through Ramsey Library;
5. Discriminate between more and less reliable and useful sources; incorporate them properly into a critical work embodying their own ideas; document that work according to departmental requirements.
6. Write a long and mature essay.
7. Think and write intelligently in response to questions which require comparison and contrast of multiple works which differ significantly in national origin, or time period, or other ways.
8. Use thoughtfully the basic critical vocabulary associated with the genre under study: e.g., dramatic irony, narrative stance, tragicomedy.

The genre courses are not part of a sequence; students may take them in either order and many students take only one of them. It is impossible, therefore, to suggest a graduated introduction of any of the skills and abilities above.

Major Author Seminar

The Major Author Seminar gives students the opportunity to spend an entire semester on one author's corpus to develop a greater sensitivity to those works and to experience the benefits of sustained study. The Seminar experience should be distinct from a 300-level special-topics course: students should take more responsibility for the intellectual production during class discussion. The Seminar should not only focus on mastery of the material and transmission of the instructor's knowledge but also on the students' process of engaging with the material.

• Students should practice active learning through presentations, projects and research. 
• Seminar Instructors should act as facilitators and role models for student learning.

Students should have acquired the skills introduced in the 300-level survey courses and should demonstrate those skills in the seminar. These skills include:

1. The ability to understand critical approaches to literature and the ability to engage those voices in their own work.
2. The ability to integrate their study of secondary sources with their study of primary sources.
3. The ability to dialogue with and constructively challenge their classmates' arguments, in written or oral formats.
4. The ability to articulate their ideas clearly in presentation and in class discussion, using concrete evidence and explication of the text for support.
5. The ability to follow MLA guidelines for writing essays.
6. The ability to conduct scholarly research.

Literature 491 Senior Seminar

Course Goals

1. To provide a framework for writing the senior thesis.
2. To develop a more sophisticated understanding of scholarly writing about literature.

(Notes: In part, the seminar should be a workshop in which stages of the student's writing process will be examined. Students will present research findings orally to the seminar. Understanding of scholarly writing may be pursued by studying examples of professional writing and approaches to literary study.)

Course Competencies

Students should produce a full-length scholarly essay that is cogently argued and written clearly in an appropriate style, using secondary materials with critical understanding and in accordance with accepted conventions for scholarly writing.

•  See also Senior Research Seminar (description)      

 Senior Comprehensive Exams

 Purposes of the exam:

1. To require students to review their studies in literature, refresh memory, fill in gaps, synthesize, and reflect.
2. To allow faculty to evaluate success in achieving educational goals of the department.

Competencies expected in the exam:

1. Literary History. Students should grasp the outlines of Western literary history including Greco-Roman and European as well as English and American literatures. For the various literary periods, students should be able to supply approximate dates, major writers and works, predominant genres, styles, and literary movements.
2. Terminology. Students should be able to define and apply the terms traditionally used to describe and analyze literary works.
3. Technique and Conventions. Students should be able to recognize the technical features of literature (for example, poetic meters, aspects of narrative form) and to discuss how these relate to the communication of meaning.
4. Interpretive Reading. Students should be able to read an unfamiliar literary selection with understanding of its methods and meanings.
5. Culture and Ideas. Students should be able to discuss literary works in the context of history, culture, and intellectual backgrounds, showing an awareness of how ideas, values, and social patterns are embodied in literature. They should have a clear understanding of the concept of culture and an awareness of cultural differences.